Medical Anthropology

addressing many of the central quandaries of the human condition – from social suffering and institutional inequality to chronic pain, warfare, and violence

The joint UCSF/UC Berkeley PhD in Medical Anthropology is one of the pioneering programs in the discipline both nationally and globally. The program brings together one of the finest medical universities and one of the finest arts and sciences universities in the country to offer students a theoretically engaged approach to emerging issues in medical anthropology. No other program offers the joint program’s combination of excellence in critical medical anthropology; studies of science, technology, and modernity; and training in historically informed, pedagogically rigorous social theory. Our students are trained to develop original, creative, and relevant scholarship that makes contributions across the medical and social science fields. The program emphasizes the ways social theory can be used to analyze urgent issues in contemporary health. These include: how populations are constituted for care or violence; the structuring logic of markets in the provision of aid and health; and the production of truth through particular conceptualizations of life, ethics, and personhood. It also offers a unique opportunity for PhD training for MDs and MD students through our MD/PhD track, which includes the Medical Sciences Training Program.

faculty
On the UC San Francisco campus, the program has eight faculty from UCSF’s Department of Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine. On the UC Berkeley side, the program has eight faculty from the Anthropology Department.

sub-disciplines
The program has a research emphasis on social inequality, differential access to care, race, violence, the biomedical economy, and science and technology studies.

The Medical Anthropology program office at UCSF is located at the Laurel Heights campus. Visit the program website for more information.

The joint Medical Anthropology program is offered by the UCSF Graduate Division and UC Berkeley
administered by the UCSF School of Medicine
delivered by faculty members in the UCSF School Medicine and the UC Berkeley Anthropology Department